Something from Book IV

This is from Meditations. It's out of order from where I've been posting. I just happened to open up the e-reader on my phone today and see it, and it was eye catching enough that I wanted to post it. It is actually from Book IV, Section 41:  

Oh, wretched I, to whom this mischance happened! nay, happy I, to whom this thing being happened, I can continue without grief; neither wounded by that which is present, nor in fear of that which is to come. For as for this, it might have happened unto any man, but any man, having such a thing befallen him, could not have continued without grief. Why then should that rather be an unhappiness, than this a happiness?

Of course, there are extreme circumstances where such a response might be difficult, but I don't think it's useful to think of it as an ideal forever to be inadequate in front of. Rather, it's an aspiration to grow toward, or, alternatively, an emergency exit from the unhelpful or destructive ways that social convention, instinct, and evolutionary programming would have us respond.